Lately, I seem to be finding more and more sophisticated projects that transform computer data into art.

Alex Dragulescu’s project: malwarez, visualizes the dreaded computer virus as a 3-dimensional, living organism. The images in the collection were commisioned by internet security company, MessageLabs, and breathes life into viruses, trojans and spyware code.

From Alex Dragulescu’s site:

For each piece of disassembled code, API calls, memory addresses and subroutines are tracked and analyzed. Their frequency, density and grouping are mapped to the inputs of an algorithm that grows a virtual 3D entity. Therefore the patterns and rhythms found in the data drive the configuration of the artificial organism.

The featured images contain stunning renderings of internet nasties such as Stormy, MyDoom, Mytob, IRCBot and Netsky.

SOURCES:

[Gizmodo.com] World’s least favorite computer viruses as haunting 3d art.

[Alex Dragulescu] project: malewarez

[MessageLabs] Know Your Enemy